While I was watching the game today I paid very close attention to two very important things--pass protection by both the offensive line and Tight ends/running backs and how many times our defensive blitzes got home to the opposing QB.  To no ones surprise, the Packers were anemic in both areas.  Special teams is, well, not very special...I don't think that Slocum will make it through this week--I think he will be canned by mid-week.

Pass Protection: Donald Lee and Ryan Grant were horrendous today when asked to help out and pass protect.  Our offensive line is atrocious by themselves, but you would think that when we give them two extra blockers they would at least hold the down the fort for 3 seconds of protection...um, no--not really.  Rodgers again was guilty of holding the ball too long on a few occasions, but I would say that 4 of the 6 sacks were on the O-line.

Defensive Blitz Packages:  I don't recall a single blitz that got home today by the Packers--not one.  When you send the house you need to at least touch the QB.  We wonder why we keep giving up big pass plays---how can we expect our corners to cover receivers for 7-plus seconds?  Even Charles Woodson would give up big plays when an opposing QB has that much time to throw!  TB was getting pressure all day rushing only 4--we couldn't sniff that Rookie QB with even 5 and 6 guys chasing after him!

The McCarthy and Thompson watch has officially started.  I'm not one for calling for people's heads as continuity in coaching/GM personnel in the NFL is underrated (as long as leadership is competent that is), but this kind of loss gets people fired--plain and simple.  It looks like a over-estimation of talent has combined with them believing their own hype of the preseason.

Oh, by the way...Ahman Green broke more tackles on one run today (3) than Ryan Grant has broken all season.  He also become the Packers' all-time leading rusher.  This was really the lone bright spot of the day :)

First off, let me preface this post by saying that I live in Green Bay and I have the privilege to go to many game at Lambeau Field.  I have seen Brett Favre do some magical things and some bone-headed things (see 07 NFC championship game).  However, as I watch this season unfold with him in purple viking gear, there appears to be empirical evidence that Favre may have been more valuable on so many levels to our young packers team than we thought.

In retrospect, 2007 appeared to be a complete mirage on many levels--Ryan Grant was the darling running back picked up off the NY Giant's scrap heap, our team was winning every close game, Greg Jennings was quickly becoming a star and TT/MM looked like geniuses.  How the mighty have fallen so quickly...BUT, as much as it pains me to admit this--the man that made things possible during that dream run in the fall of 2007 was none other than BF.

Brett Favre seemed to be the only true veteran that, in my opinion, might have guided and held our young team accountable during TT's tenure and through the magical 07 season--as much as we blast Favre for how he exited GB or how aloof in the locker room he was, the numbers don't lie--we have sucked since he left and he is the only player of substance that has left our team. (Cullen Jenkins was injured much of last year so he would be a close second, all things being equal).  Favre makes players around him better--that's a fact...players want to do their best around him and for him--that's a fact.  I think Favre asked for his release in the spring of 2008 more so because he wanted to be on a team with established, savvy veterans and key free agents--players like the ones that he was used to winning with like Reggie White, Sean Jones & Keith Jackson--the Vikings fit that mold to a "T" and happened to play in our division.  If Favre had to waste a year in NY to get to Minnesota it was worth it to him--the bonus was being able to stick it to TT when he did get to the Vikings.  Perhaps in the spring of 2008 Favre knew how poor the discipline, work ethic or accountability was on the youngest team in the league--he was too old to wait around to find out if he was right or wrong--he didn't want to take that chance with a bunch of young punks who didn't know or care to know who Kitrich Taylor was.  Perhaps he saw MM as more of an enabler willing to put up with a young team's gaffs, penalties and lack of accountability.

With us losing TWICE this year in less than stellar fashion to the Vikings, the Packers Players and coaches as human beings have to be wondering how Favre ended up doing them in like he did.  TT made the right move to jettison BF to the Jets because he CORRECTLY knew what he had in Aaron Rodgers and we needed to take control of the franchise back.  The gross miscalculation that TT failed to account for was the bitterness, spite and competitiveness that a player like Favre can harbor, nurture and then materialize into the ass-kicking that he laid on our Packer team TWICE this year.  TT's worst nightmare has become reality this year--he wasn't beaten by Adrian Peterson, who is the best offensive player in the league according to some, he was beaten by the same quarterback that killed our Cinderella Superbowl team of 2007 that wasn't meant to be.

I'm not saying that Brett Favre was like Reggie White in that if you got a bone-head penalty he would be in your grill, but since he left our team has horrid discipline during games and seems very lethargic and nonchalant during big games.  Jonny Jolly's penalty was horrible on so many levels--his excuse for it after the game was actual more horrible than the penalty itself!  I never recall any coach almost losing a locker room while Brett Favre was here--but in seven games this year Mike McCarthy appears to be one bad loss away from losing the locker room--and ultimately his job.

Aaron Rodgers will do great things in his career I believe, but we are the youngest team in the league for the 4th consecutive year...now more than ever we are acting like it.  A little veteran leadership can go a long way.

Does anybody know any details (if they exist) about Greg Jennings and the new contract that he wants (and should get).  I keep hearing all this stuff about the new 3-4 defense but in my mind the biggest disappointment of this offseason would be NOT re-signing #85 to a long-term deal.

GJ doesn't seem like a guy who would comment publicly on this type of stuff so given the fact that he has publicly talked about wanting a new contract that almost leads me to believe that TT is dragging his feet or worse, trying to re-sign him on the cheap.

Apparently a story on Green Bay Press Gazette's website is reporting that Mark Murphy offered Favre upwards of $20 Million in "hush-money" over the next 10 years to stay retired.  You heard that right...a full-on bribe attempt to one of the greatest football players ever...Surreal.

I should be surprised, but I am not at this point.  This PR nightmare has twisted and turned so many different directions every couple hours that nothing surprises me anymore.  The only thing that does surprise me about this whole mess is that nobody has wound up dead in Lake Michigan in Wisconsin or in the Gulf down by Mississippi(!)

The fall from grace of both Favre and the Packers as an organization is astounding.  I am only 29 years old but I have never seen a soap opera like this in professional sports.  I never thought I would say this, but if they did indeed try to bribe Favre to stay retired then they are simply scared to death that Aaron Rodgers will not work out in the long term in Green Bay and they could not bear to see Favre come into Lambeau wearing a purple jersey and kicking our a$$.  It sounds like Packers Management isn't playing to win, they are simply playing not to lose.

The only sensible way to put this to bed would be to release Favre.  If he goes to the Vikings then so be it--we have joined ourselves at the hip with Rodgers according to McCarthy and Thompson and there is apparently no turning back.  If the Packers want to cut off their nose to spite their face that's fine, but they won't be able to smell the big steaming pile of you-know-what that they just stepped in.

Favre obviously isn't blameless in this whole fiasco but he called the Packer's bluff and, rather than play hardball back, the Packers got caught so far off guard by everything that has transpired during the past week or so that they have behaved like a captain on a sinking ship--and they're going down with the ship right before our very eyes.

By the way: The Packers should not let TT do any more PR on their behalf--he has the charisma of a cinder-block and doesn't really relate well to Joe-Packer fan.

This entire PR debacle seems to boil down to one thing and one thing only--Favre doesn't seem to jive with the Ted Thompson long-term plan. This seems to be the only instance in the history of Favre's GB career where he has felt that the Packers owed him something (ie more respect or the club's willingness to pick up more big name free agents on his behalf--ala Randy Moss or Jason Taylor). Thompson probably thought that Favre was done 2 years ago and basically, well, he thought wrong and it threw a wrench into the whole operation. Thompson is in the right here because you can't let the inmates run the asylum as they say--even if that inmate is a 3-time mvp quarterback and possibly the greatest QB ever. It sets a bad, bad precedent--it's as simple as that. The Packers owe Favre ZERO--anybody who thinks otherwise is being disingenuous, ignorant or both.

Now, would I welcome Favre back? Hell YES--this is a win now league and you can't tell me that Rodgers gives GB a better chance to win right now. However, If we (the packers) take back Favre unconditionally that will create a ripple effect all the way from the top of the organization on down to the janitor at Lambeau field. But How can one player dictate terms to an organization? Also: these people who think that Favre will be released are delusional--as stingy as Ted Thompson is, he would be the dumbest man alive to let Favre go to another team within our division, let alone the NFC--that would be an unforgivable sin AND a bad business move. The most likely scenario would be a trade to an AFC team. The prospect of getting equal value at this point is very tricky because of his age though...even though he had a stellar season last year I would be shocked if they got anything more than a 2nd or 3rd round pick. This, in my opinion, is not fair market value.

The Packers, in my opinion, are blessed to have the ownership situation that they are in.  Granted, the competitive landscape of the NFL somewhat "allows" the packers to thrive and even buck the system of huge TV markets and megalomanic owners.  Revenue sharing and the salary cap are essential and at the heart of the reason that a tiny Wisconsin city can continue to have an NFL franchise...but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Just for a moment, imagine if Al Davis was the owner of the Green Bay Packers--a man who walks around in public wearing clothes that Rick James would scoff at.  A man who fired and rehired Art Shell.  (It is also well documented that Art Shell's offensive Coordinator ran a bed and breakfast the year before Shell hired him!  Bed and breakfasts and NFL offensive systems do go hand in hand.)

Or, imagine if the packers were owned by Daniel Snyder or Jerry Jones--two men with obvious business acumen, but clearly have no business in meddling in football affairs.  Their egos know no bounds.  The owners of the packers are the fans of the town, but the real movers and shakers are the board of directors--which almost literally function like a corporate board.  If the current CEO/GM isn't cuttting it, the board votes you out.  You never have to worry about an egotistical owner getting into a public feud with a coach, or something like that.  I spent much of my childhood and some teenage years living just outside of Atlanta, Georgia.  The Falcons (even in the late 80s and early 90s) were an absolute abysmal franchise to watch and follow.  (Now, we all know that Green Bay had a drought in the 70s and 80s, but they obviously made the smart move of hiring Bob Harlan and the rest is history.)  Anyway, the falcons always took a back seat to the Atlanta Braves, mostly because the Braves were winning their division every year and had a chance to do something.  I can't honestly remember who owned the falcons prior to Arthur Blank, but whoever it was they didn't care about the team.  They were involved for the sole purpose of the spoils of owning a professional sports franchise--they weren't interested in making the team better, they were simply interested in owning the team--period.

This is where the parallels with business and a professional sports team tend to inter-twine--only with the packers of course, because we have this board of directors.  Corporations are driven by stock prices and profits and, if the current management style is not working, out they go.  This model also works GREAT for a sports franchise because it takes the main figurehead out of the equation.  Everyone has seen a private business at some point or another that was run by an idiot who drove it straight into the ground because he simply didn't know what he was doing--this type of scenario is nearly impossible with the GB Packers model.  If you are deemed incompetent, you get the boot....Unlike the pervading model in the NFL, which features way too many incompetent "football" boobs (like Daniel Snyder and Wayne Hyzenga) running franchises into the ground all by themselves.   Our "owner" is not driven by profits and making money--ours is driven by winning games and championships.  Our owner recognizes that if we win games and championships the money will come.  Success is not a by-product of money...money is a by-product of success!

There may only be one owner in the NFL who is equal to or better than the corporate board of directors "system" that the Packers have...his name is Robert Kraft, and his team has been to 4 Superbowls in the past 7 years.  Maybe our board of directors can bring him in as a consultant :)

I was in the stands for the 08 NFC Championship at Lambeau--(with great seats on the 40 yardline 14 rows up.) so I feel it necessary to vent, but vent using emperical data, over this debacle...

FIRST, THE BIG PERSPECTIVE:  This was a GOLDEN opportunity to re-establish the Lambeau field mystique.  Long suffering during the Mike Sherman era, where we continued to lose in the play-offs at home, this game could have made other teams dread the very thought of coming to Lambeau in January.  (The Seattle Game the previous week was fun to watch, but in my opinion everyone thought we would have to go to Dallas anyhow.)  So when the NFC Championship was dropped in our lap, the entire town and team got wayyyy ahead of ourselves/themselves.  The very fact that the Giants beat us at home, in temperatures that dire, breathed life into other teams' thoughts of beating the packers at Lambeau in the future.

SECOND, THE GAME ITSELF: Our horrendous gameplan reminded me of the Dallas Game where we came out and somehow got away from what we did well and started chucking the ball deep.  I didn't even realize until after the game that Ryan Grant only ran the ball 5 times in the 2nd half (including overtime!)  One would have thought that if we could not run the ball effectively we would go back to our bread and butter--the quick slant.  That never happened either.  Al Harris continues to basically not show up in the biggest games (he was also nowhere to be found in the Dallas game this year as well).  Now, considering the fact that we could not get pressure on Eli Manning with our front 4, I understand how a cornerback can give up chunks here and there...if you put a bad cornerback (let alone a pro bowl cornerback) out on an island having to cover a receiver who is 6 inches taller than them, you will give up plays.  But, I did not see one pass defended by him that night--Buress basically caught every ball and was tackled right away.  I may be the first person to say this, but we need a new, young and TALL shut down corner on our team.  Al Harris is getting old and the new breed of tall and physical receivers is going to make Harris look silly for the rest of his career.  You simply cannot give 6 inches in height when a corner is covering a receiver--this is that Randy Moss syndrome.  People marvel at Moss' ability to continually get open--but more often than not the DB covering him is way to short to begin with.  All you have to do is time a pass with a lot of air underneath it and allow a tall receiver to snag it out of the air.

THE COACHING: Mike McCarthy is a good coach I believe, but he flat out got out-coached in this one.  In his post-game press conference he blamed the execution, not the scheme on the end result.  That is a gentle euphamism for "I screwed up, but the players were the ones out there playing so I blame them".  Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it--again, he obviously didn't learn much from the Dallas Game.  It continues to amaze me that NFL coaches cannot and do not adjust properly at halftime.  Not having the talent to adjust accordingly is one thing, but having the talent and not adjusting is another thing entirely...in this case we had the latter--talented players.

FAVRE: All things considered, Favre did ok.  His interception in overtime has not been criticized enough by anyone--for this reason:  Favre is a 17 year veteran who is essentially a coach on the field.  He has played in the same offensive system his entire career in GB, and there is probably not one defensive scheme he has not run into.  With that said, his overall vision of the field during the Giants game was terrible--with the microcosym being the interception in overtime.  Ryan Grant was WIDE open on that play with no one near him within 15 yards--the fact that Favre did not see that in an NFC championship game, in overtime, deep in his own territory, is very disheartening.  Even if he didn't put the ball in the spot that he wanted when he threw to Driver, the decision to throw that pass at that time was simply unexcusable in my mind.

I think Favre will come back for another year.  At this point I am indifferent to the whole retirement media circus with him.  If he decides to retire we won't be good for a while--people who think Aaron Rodgers can simply step in and take over are delirious.   Each time Rodgers has shown flashes of brilliance he gets hurt during the following week (unless the injury reports are just media posturing and the organization doesn't want to risk a nagging injury with him)--correct me if I'm wrong, but you need to play in order to prove your worth in the NFL(?)

WHAT'S NEXT?  Kgb should be out the door...he shows flashes of brillance too, but 1 out 10 is 10% which is a pretty bad percentage when it comes to actually showing results.  Cullen Jenkins is solid, but just imagine what another powerful defensive end opposite Aaron Kampman would do to our defense!  Safety is a question mark too--I like Atari Bigby-alot.  He is a hitter, which is what we need, but too often he over pursues and misses tackles completely and he is a liability in pass coverage.  Nick Collins is average--but average in the nfl means you should be on the scout team.  I am really nervous about our Corners--Woodson is a gamer who plays through injuries, but that is going to catch up to him.  Al Harris is a physical, tough corner but continually becomes a no show in big games.  He will be 35 next year (or 36?) which is ancient in the NFL, just ask Brett Favre :)